Mr. Patrick Burke:

No. One cannot draw that inference from the numbers without understanding the context. The two points concern the overall numbers and granting of eligibility on illness grounds. The Secretary General has dealt with that and we can go through it again. Let me deal with the numbers.

There were 97,000 clients recorded as having discretion and as of 1 October, 38,238 were recorded as having discretion. Following a review, 41,779 of those clients had a medical card on the basis of an assessment of their means. There is a balance of 17,059, and of those who do not eligibility, 2,361 were deceased; we received no response from 6,265 people despite multiple requests; 2,109 did not provide information that we needed to maintain a verification of circumstances; and 6,324 were judged not eligible when assessed the guidelines. We analysed those 6,324 cases.

Of these, 50% were more than 200% above the guideline figures, while 92% were more than 50% above them.